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Honey bee publish details |
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| Name |
Loksarvani (Gujarati version of Honey Bee) |
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| Address |
SRISTI, P O Box No. 15050 Ambawadi, Ahmedabad - 380015, Gujarat
loksarvani@sristi.org |
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| Title |
Diversity and consensus among herbal remedies for bloat |
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| Details |
Herbal remedies (for bloat) in animals, received from Gujarat in the years 2010 and 2011 were analysed to classify the source plants in terms of their criticality in the herbal mixtures.
Objective
The study carried out had three specific objectives.
a) To identify the role of the plant in the mixture
b) To investigate whether certain combination of plant families tend to occur more often for this purpose
c) To determine the consensus among the inhabitants of the study area on herbal remedies for bloat
a) Roles of plant in the mixture
Traditional remedies, comprising many ingredients, have passed down from one generation to another or are improved upon in situ. In either case, though the innovator may know the precise concentrations of the ingredients to be used, he may not be totally aware of their exact functions. An ingredient can be specifically used as a principal ingredient which is aimed at the allaying of symptoms. However, some ingredients may also be used as media for the primary ingredient to dissolve, stabilise, enhance the taste, increase the bioavailability, suppress the side effects or balance the pH and pKa. The study aimed to separate the principal ingredient from the supporting ingredients. It was found that Hing (Ferula asafoetida) was the most commonly used ingredient in the remedies against bloat. However, this was used in only two instances out of 15, as the lone ingredient. Thus, implying that hing may not be as effective in isolation as compared to its use when mixed with two or more ingredients. Kanthadi (Caparis sepiaria (L.) R. Br), on the other hand, was always used as the principal ingredient. The use of both roots and leaves was observed. Carom seeds (Trachyspermum ammi (L.) Sprague) were mainly used as a supporting ingredient in all the ten reported herbal practices. Abrus precatorious L. (rosary pea, chanothi) plant was also one of the often used principal ingredient in the treatment of bloat. The remedies collected used seeds, roots, leaves and a combination of roots and leaves of the plant. The leaves of Phyllanthus reticulatus (Poir.) (Kamboi) were used five times as a single ingredient.
b) Combination of families
The study also aimed at ascertaining whether some plant families were used more in isolation or in combination. It was found that plants of the Apiaceae family, which in this case, included asafoetida, carom seeds, and coriander, were used seven times out of the 121 practices. Apiaceae and Zingeraceae were the only pair of plant families that were repeated in the exercise.
c) Consensus on remedies
When there is a consensus between members of different communities on how to deal with a particular disease, there is lesser variation among the practices. Such a consensus is likely to occur when the practice is widely known to cure the disease. In cases, where there is no robust solution, there is more experimentation and hence the variation between the practices is more.
The Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) is a metric that is used to quantify the degree of consensus between practices. For the sampled practices of bloat the ICF was calculated using this formula:
ICF=(Nur-Nt)/(Nur-1)1
Where,
Nur= Number of total uses reported for a disease (121, in this case)
Nt= Number of species used by informants for the disease = 44)
The values of ICF can range from 0 to 1. A high consensus factor means that fewer number of plant species were used to treat a problem, signifying that there was a wide consensus on treating the disease. A low consensus factor implies that a large number of plants were used to treat a particular disease and that there was confusion or disagreement over which plant species to use. A very low ICF is normally found when plants are chosen randomly or there is no information exchange between the informants. Higher values of ICF are found in communities with well defined selection criteria and/or a streamlined information flow.2
The ICF was thus found to be 0.642 suggesting that there was a moderately high consensus for the treatment of bloat. A detailed study can further be pursued for a set of plants in the region for various other diseases and the fidelity level for these can be calculated. The fidelity level would throw light on which plants are used more often in treating particular diseases.
References
1.Cheikhyoussef, A., Shapi, M., Matengu, K. & Mu Ashekele, H. (2011) Ethnobotanical study of indigenous knowledge on medicinal plant use by traditional healers in Oshikoto region, Namibia. J Ethnobiol Ethnomed.
2.Gazzaneo, L. R., Lucena, R. F. de & Albuquerque, U. P. de. (2005) Knowledge and use of medicinal plants by local specialists in an region of Atlantic Forest in the state of Pernambuco (Northeastern Brazil). Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine.
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 23(2) 16, 2012 |
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